My Tf2 project begins!

I was able to figure out extracting the models from SourceSDK into Maya. Took some work, though luckily there are some nifty tools to help with extracting the SourceSDK. Still it involved many little steps.. I got the models and their skeletons now.


I have two goals in this project. 1. Automate my rigging process 2. create new animations for my personal portfolio.

I've been rigging/animating for the past 4 years, but never found the time to work on scripting. Which I know I can do, but I've never given time too. Now I have some time and I have 9 characters to rig! I'll be approaching this as if I was a TA in charge of TF2's Character setup process! I'd like to start with one character and create new scripts to speed up my rigging. Once I get familiar with my scripting again, I'll move onto the next step.

I'd like to bring new animations back into the TF2 Source engine. So I'm gonna aim to create a new workflow to get my animations from my new rigs onto the old TF2 skeletons. Then hopefully get these back into Source. I'm hoping to automate the process along the way and get a new workflow going between the two. In this way, I'll be in the position of a TA trying to automate the character animation process. :)

Of course in between all this, I'll start creating new animations!

Woot I'm excited!